Title page for ETD etd-10242005-174017

Is migration a solution to the earnings loss of the displaced workers in the segmented labor market in the U.S.?

Degree

PhD

Department

Sociology

Advisory Committee

Advisor Name

Title

Fuller, Theodore D.

Committee Chair

Ballweg, John A.

Committee Member

Bohland, James R.

Committee Member

Flora, Jan L.

Committee Member

Wimberley, Dale W.

Committee Member

Keywords

Labor mobility United States

Wages Effect of labor mobility on United States

Displaced workers United States.

Labor market United State.

Date of Defense

1994-06-16

Availability

restricted

Abstract

Earnings loss due to both lower wages at the current job and the time forgone
between two jobs is one of the major consequences of job displacement caused by
plant closing, moving and downsizing in the 1980s. Is migration a solution? The
present study attempts to answer this question empirically by exploring five waves of
data on the displaced manufacturing workers from the CPS Displaced Workers
Supplements.

Human capital theory and neo-classica1 theory of labor migration both assert
that migration should improve people's socio-economic status. They largely neglect
social and economic structural constraints on the outcomes of individual behavior.
From the dynamic segmentation perspective, this study hypothesizes that
deindustrialization has been squeezing workers from the subordinate (lower-tier)
primary segment down and thus such workers suffered more loss than their
counterparts from the independent (upper-tier) segment; since deindustrialization
primarily affected the core manufacturing industries, core workers suffered greater
loss from displacement relative to their peripheral counterparts. In this context, this
study further hypothesizes that migration will not benefit the workers from the
subordinate primary segment as much as the workers from the independent primary
segments.

The empirical results confirm the main hypotheses of the present study:
Workers displaced from the subordinate primary segment suffered more earnings loss
and longer jobless duration than their counterparts from the independent primary
segment. Workers from the core industries experienced longer jobless duration than
their counterparts from the peripheral segment. Migration had no effect on the postdisplacement
earnings and jobless duration for the displaced workers from either
segment. The clear implication of these findings is that migration is no solution.

Among other things, occupation/industry change when reemployed is an
important factor causing earnings loss; formal educational attainment reduces earnings
loss and shortens the jobless duration while work tenure on the pre-displacement job
increases earnings loss and lengthens the jobless duration.